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soniclovenoize · 03:25 PM

Ready Player One - B+
Leary of any film my kids saw first and told me I had to see it, I reluctantly gave into Steven Spielberg's latest CGI vomitorium. It only took about 45 minutes to get over my own pretenses to enjoy the ride of a rather well-made Tron-meets-It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. A lot has already been said of the hundreds of 80s pop culture references that creates the fabric of the film, but what is interesting to me is the prediction that 2040 nerd culture will fetishise the 80s and 90s; people do that now with 60s and 70s, so why not? But anyways, if you strip all the dumb references away (many self-serving for Spielberg himself), the movie still stands on it's own. Not bad.

Inglourious Basterds - B-
Standard Quentin Tarantino period piece that predictably genre-benders -- in this case a Spaghetti Western that takes place in WWII. The only thing really new for Tarantino here is a goofy Brad Pitt who straddles charming and obnoxious. The rest is predictable for him: chapter subdivisions; time jumps and erratic cuts; anachronistic soundtrack; villains immensely more interesting and developed than heroes; all the interesting characters are killed halfway through the film anyways. And of course, the one thing that has bothered me since it was pointed out to me 20 years ago-- every fucking character speaks as if they were Quentin Tarantino himself. Is this vanity? Or does he not realize he's doing this? Regardless, high marks for literally scalping Nazis; not too high of marks for his typical non-ending that, this time around, is rather infuriating.

08-18-2018, 03:16 PM	#4472
soniclovenoize Minion of Satan Location: Minneapolis, MN Posts: 5,595	Ready Player One - B+ Leary of any film my kids saw first and told me I had to see it, I reluctantly gave into Steven Spielberg's latest CGI vomitorium. It only took about 45 minutes to get over my own pretenses to enjoy the ride of a rather well-made Tron-meets-It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. A lot has already been said of the hundreds of 80s pop culture references that creates the fabric of the film, but what is interesting to me is the prediction that 2040 nerd culture will fetishise the 80s and 90s; people do that now with 60s and 70s, so why not? But anyways, if you strip all the dumb references away (many self-serving for Spielberg himself), the movie still stands on it's own. Not bad. Inglourious Basterds - B- Standard Quentin Tarantino period piece that predictably genre-benders -- in this case a Spaghetti Western that takes place in WWII. The only thing really new for Tarantino here is a goofy Brad Pitt who straddles charming and obnoxious. The rest is predictable for him: chapter subdivisions; time jumps and erratic cuts; anachronistic soundtrack; villains immensely more interesting and developed than heroes; all the interesting characters are killed halfway through the film anyways. And of course, the one thing that has bothered me since it was pointed out to me 20 years ago-- every fucking character speaks as if they were Quentin Tarantino himself. Is this vanity? Or does he not realize he's doing this? Regardless, high marks for literally scalping Nazis; not too high of marks for his typical non-ending that, this time around, is rather infuriating. Last edited by soniclovenoize : 08-18-2018 at 03:25 PM.